XV. Three's a crowd
As told by Nina
When my boyfriend spoke up again, he was staring down, twisting one of his paws back and forth on the floor.
"I's want to pway," he said softly.
"Then I suggest you open your first present," Trisha spoke up, involving herself in the conversation.
Her grandson turned around, a bit startled. He had probably forgotten about his grandmother being there. Come to think of it, I had not paid any attention to her either. She had, of course, seen and heard everything.
"I've put it on the guest bed. Go unwrap it, Milo. I'll leave you pups alone," she added quizzically, although _I_knew what she meant.
I took Milo's hand and guided him back to the guest bedroom. Once there, he wanted to unwrap his present but I held him back.
"If you're going to play puppy, you'll have to dress like a puppy first," I demanded, thumbing at the folded diaper, which was still on the bed.
"Okies," Milo replied plainly, and he started to undress.
"D'you want me to diaper you?" I asked, somewhat hesitantly.
He appeared to be in doubt for a while himself, but then nodded a couple of times. I instructed him to lay down on the bed, after I had put a changing pad in the right spot. Once he was lying comfortably, wearing only his boxers, I told him to close his eyes and not peek until I allowed him to open them again.
Being a good puppy already, Milo complied. He was very nervous, however, maybe even more than I was, so I decided I should do something about that first. I tiptoed to his bag and zipped it open. Sharra was the last thing Milo had put in, and his pacifier was equally easy to find.
With both items in hand, I returned to my big boy who was waiting to become a puppy. First, I brushed against Milo's lips with the teat of his pacifier. He recognized the feeling, snapped at the soother and began nursing it. I then used Sharra's snout to tickle his chest, but Milo grabbed his plushie from me with a smile before I could make him burst into laughter.
I shrugged, and smiling as well, I picked up the diaper from the foot of the bed. It crinkled as I unfolded it, and I saw Milo's ears twitch in anticipation of the soft padding that would soon hug his waist and bottom. With a tap on the side of his hips, I motioned him to lift his rump, so I could take his underwear off and switch it for something more appropriate.
I added some puppy powder, partly because I personally liked the feeling, but it also had a very enjoyable scent. Since Poochies have only three tapes in total, I was done a little sooner than in case I would have put Milo in one of his regular diapers. The process was finished by helping him sit up.
"Can I's wook again?" he asked in his puppy voice once he was safely wearing a diaper.
"Not yet, pup," I giggled, offering the present to him. "Here, open this, but no peeking!"
"How can I-" he started, but I interrupted him.
"Just unwrap it and try to find out what it is. I'd like you to guess, okay?"
He nodded excitedly, and I swapped Sharra for the present. With eager hands, like a puppy, Milo began ripping the wrapping paper off. Within seconds, his excited expression changed to a curious one as he fumbled the soft material of the onesie.
"Can you guess what it is?"
He cocked his head. "Dunno. Somefin' soft, but nodda shirt, 'cause there's no sweeves."
"You're close," I said, tickling him under his chin. "Why don't you peek and see how close you are?"
Milo blinked and looked at his new onesie.
"Wowee! It's even got Inukshuk on it!" he said, recognizing the polar bear cub from his favorite kids show. "Where did you find that appliqué?"
I grinned. "A girl has her ways. I know you like Kody best, but I couldn't find one of him. Besides, you already have a shirt with him on it, right?"
"Yush. I really like it! Thankies, Nina!"
"Now it's my turn to guess. You can't wait to put your onesie on, can you?"
He wanted to hide behind Sharra in his shyness, but unfortunately for him, I still had his plushie. I took Milo's paw and helped him to stand up, after which I told him to put his arms up. With a swift move, I slid the onesie over his arms and head, straightening it out as it covered his upper body.
My puppy admired how the onesie looked and felt on him, while I knelt to snap the bottom shut. Once that was done, I asked him whether he liked his present. He took his pacifier out.
"Of course I like it! It's a bit tight, but not uncomfortably so. Oh, and it's really soft, both on the inside and the outside. It's one of the best presents you've ever given me! Where did you find this?"
"Trisha taught me how to sew and helped me to make this for you all by myself. We used my body as a model, but we had to guess some sizes, since I'm a girl and you're not. I'm mostly concerned about the waist and the chest. Are those okay for you?"
Milo did not answer, but pounced me instead. I fell over, and he followed, but we did not hurt ourselves, because we fell on the bed. He snuggled up to me and cuddled me tight. Suddenly, tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.
"What's wrong, puppy? Why are you crying?"
"You made this specially for me..." he whispered through his tears. "That's the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. It's perfect, Nina."
I then understood he was crying tears of joy. Without hesitating, I returned his gesture and hugged Milo back, after I had taken his pacifier from his hand and put it back into his mouth. After what must have been a few minutes of cuddling, he had calmed down again. The insecure big dog had faded to the background and the happy little puppy remained.
"We should go back to the living room," I said, finally breaking the comfortable silence. "There's more to come, little angel."
"I should probably put my shorts back on, though," he replied after taking his pacifier out again.
I got up from the bed and picked up his shorts. With Milo leaning on my shoulder, I held up the shorts so he could step into them. Once that was settled and his pants were buttoned, he grabbed Sharra and took my hand. We both put our respective pacifiers in our muzzles and went to discover what Trisha had been doing in the living room.
She got up from her chair at the dinner table, where she had been waiting for us. With a broad smile on her face, she approached Milo and gave him a firm hug.
"Dear, I've got to admit you look unusual to me, and maybe people will call it weird, but if it makes the two of you happy, I'm fine with it. After all, you're both adults, and you're not hurting anyone with it. I even think you're kind of cute like this."
"Um, thanks, I guesss?" Milo said, a bit unsure how he should take the compliment.
"Don't worry, son. Although my knowledge about you has changed, you're still my grandson, and I won't stop loving you like I always did," Trisha continued, reinforcing her statement by giving Milo a lick on his forehead.
"I-I... thankies, granny. I never thought you'd be fine with this," he said softly.
She smiled.
"It's okay, dear. Now, go sit at the table. You know what comes with birthdays, don't you?"
Milo cocked his head, looking pensively at his grandmother. I decided to help him out.
"A birthday cake, silly," I said playfully.
He squealed happily as Trisha took a circular white cake from the fridge and put it on the table. The cake was small, but more than big enough for the three of us. She must have had it made especially for her, as the cake was covered in white frosting, embellished with dark chocolate stripes.
"It's stripy!" he exclaimed with glee.
"Just like you, little angel," I said with a wink.
Trisha put the finishing touch to the image with the addition of four tiny candles. She lit a match as Milo waited eagerly, the scents of the cake tormenting his patience.
"I went with four candles," Trisha said as she lit them, "because you said you pretend to be three-year-olds."
"Well, um... typically, we littlefurs don't really get older. I still appreciate it, though."
"I thought so," the old Indian replied with a smile. "Now blow out your candles and make a wish."
Milo closed his eyes and blew out the four candles one by one. He faintly smiled when he was done, probably thinking of the wish he had just made.
"Now before I'm going to let you two eat cake, I've got a present for you myself," Trisha announced. My ears perked up, and Milo and I turned to her in anticipation.
"I want you both to cover your eyes first," she continued.
Acting like the good puppies we are, we did like the old Indian asked. I perked up my eyes a little more and tried my best to listen to her movements. She took something from a nearby closet, then walked to Milo, but I could not hear anything revealing about the present.
A few seconds later, she moved again and went to stand behind me. I felt something soft and light touch my chest, followed by something being wrapped or tied around my neck.
"There we go. You can look again," she said when she was satisfied.
I eagerly uncovered my eyes and immediately noticed something different about Milo. He was wearing a light green bib with dark green edges. Printed in playful letters, the cloth read 'I'm grandma's favorite!'.
I then looked down at my own chest and saw the bib Trisha had put around my neck. My eyes fell on a purple piece of cloth that very much resembled the one Milo wore, although the letters were pink. They read 'Daddy's little princess'.
"Nina and I have done some practicing, and that's when we found out she didn't own a bib. You wouldn't want to stain your new onesie, would you?"
Milo shook his head.
"Thanks, Trisha. Although I don't really think of Milo as my daddy, I really like your present... but it's not _my_birthday, is it?"
"Does it really matter?" she replied gently. "In a strange way, I had fun playing with you, although it was a kind of fun I'd never had before and never expected to ever have."
"Um, Granny?" Milo asked, putting up his begging puppy eyes. "Can we have cake now, please?"
Trisha cut the cake in six pieces and served three of the pieces on separate plates.
"I'll put the other half back in the fridge, so we can have some more later, or you can take it home with you."
She gave both of us a blunt plastic fork, so we could dig in. The cake was delicious, and we were practically devouring it. The combination of the chocolate and vanilla frosting was tasty, but the raspberry filling in the middle made the entire thing irresistible.
Milo was done even faster than I was, and he proved the bib to be more than a luxury. He probably just let himself go, knowing it would not matter if he spilled anything. His grandmother looked at us with a smile, slowly shaking her head. She, of course, ate her cake with a lot more... restraint, even though she clearly liked it as well.
When we were all done eating our cake, Trisha cleaned mine and Milo's muzzles up with a wet washcloth. She then asked me to get the other presents from my bag. It did not look like much, but there was more than met the eye.
Trisha had asked me to buy some presents 'little Milo' would like, and we would split whatever the cost was. I knew this was not the moment to go overboard, but on the other hand, Milo had not celebrated his birthday for three years, so there was some catching up to do.
Of course, his onesie was probably the best gift I could think of, but what is a puppy without his diapers? I therefore decided to order Milo a case of Whelpies - a royal fifty-four heavyweight diapers in total. I had it delivered to Trisha's apartment, and she had kept the case in her bedroom, for the moment.
However, such a box would be far too big and heavy for a puppy to unwrap, so I wrote Milo a birthday card instead. To mimic his own tricks, I wrote the card with my off hand. The message was short, wishing him a happy birthday and ending with mentioning the present.
Milo quickly read what I had written, then looked back up to me with a smile. Trisha told him he did not need to take all the Whelpies home with him in one go, as that would not fit in his bag - not even in both our bags. She was okay with keeping the case in her apartment until it was emptied.
Judging by Milo's facial expression, he probably did not expect even more presents. There was one last item I had bought for him, a cute gift I just could not resist buying. I had no idea whether we would actually use it, but we had both gotten a bib, it might come in useful after all. The funniest of it all was that even Trisha did not know what the last gift was.
I handed the present over to the birthday boy, who tried to guess the contents of the package, but to no avail. After an approving look from my side, he tore the wrapping off, revealing a brightly colored plastic airplane. At the front, it featured a spoon instead of a propeller.
"Here comes the aeroplane!" Trisha said with a sing-song voice.
I chuckled, and Milo even laughed.
"Did you know about the bibs, dear?" she asked me.
I shook my head. "It was just too cute not to buy, don't you agree?"
"Something tells me it's mostly going to be me feeding you with this, instead of the other way around," Milo joked.
"Who knows," I replied with a grin. "Oh, you know what's really neat? The spoon even changes in color if the food is too hot, so little puppies don't burn their tongue."
"Wowee!" he said in his puppy voice. "So many pwesents... You's spoiling me, Nina!"
Milo was wagging his tail, but he was not the only one to do so.
"I'm glad you like it, little angel. Trisha said you haven't celebrated your birthday since you moved out, so I thought it'd be good to catch up, right?"
He got up from his chair to embrace me.
"Thankies Nina, you're really nice. Thankies a lot."
"You're welcome, puppy. It was fun picking these presents for you, but the best thing is seeing you happy on your birthday."